The American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) each sent letters to DOI Secretary Ryan Zinke while the proposed reorganization was being formulated. Zinke initially discussed the plans in a five-minute video with employees last January, and in a subsequent interview with the Washington Post. Additional details emerged from a memo sent Wednesday to DOI's 70,000 employees.

"We appreciate and support efforts to modernize and reorganize the DOI in order to improve governance, streamline permitting and approvals, and improve coordination of government services so that unnecessary barriers to oil and natural gas development are minimized and eliminated," API CEO Michael Sommers wrote in an Aug. 6 letter to Zinke. "Federal lands hold great promise for continued job growth and government revenue generation, and the DOI's reorganization should be looked upon as an opportunity to pave the way for expanded, long-term and environmentally responsible resource development."

In a separate letter to Zinke on July 19, IPAA's Dan Naatz, senior vice president for government relations, said producers that operate on public lands "face a morass of overlapping regulatory requirements when working on those lands. IPAA strongly supports efforts to improve coordination among bureaus within DOI and with other federal agencies. We also applaud your plans to empower the agency field offices to resolve disputes and be more responsive to the public."

]]>API reiterates need to reform RFS as EPA readies proposed 2019 quotashttp:///article/api-reiterates-need-to-reform-rfs-as-epa-readies-proposed-2019-quotas
http:///article/api-reiterates-need-to-reform-rfs-as-epa-readies-proposed-2019-quotasFri, 17 Aug 2018 00:00:00 -0400Small refiner exemptions that the US Environmental Protection Agency issued to help the refiners meet renewable fuel quotas are only the latest sign that the federal Renewable Fuels Standard program is badly broken and needs to be repealed or dramatically reformed, an American Petroleum Institute official said as the agency sought comments while it prepares to propose 2019 renewable fuel quotas.

“The fact that so many of these exemptions were granted shows the program is broken,” API Downstream and Industry Operations Group Director Frank J. Macchiarola said during an Aug. 16 teleconference. “But some want these obligations reallocated to other parties, which we oppose as an even greater inequity,” he said.

The Renewable Fuels Association has charged that the small refiner waivers resulted in a decline in biofuel demand and cost US corn growers, ethanol producers, and ethanol blenders more than $5 billion. It plans to ask EPA to reallocate the volumes involved in the proposed 2019 quotas when it files comments before the Aug. 17 deadline...

]]>Permian Oil And Natural Gas Production Continues To Growhttp:///article/permian-oil-and-natural-gas-production-continues-to-grow
http:///article/permian-oil-and-natural-gas-production-continues-to-growThu, 09 Aug 2018 00:00:00 -0400With the latest Drilling Productivity Report released from the EIA on July 16, the numbers in Texas' Permian basin - our largest oil field and our second largest natural gas field - continue to grow, 3.33 million b/d of oil and 10.7 Bcf/d of gas produced this month - with even more expected in August. Natural gas in the Permian comes as a byproduct of crude oil production ("associated gas"). In fact, despite accounting for 12-15% of total U.S. gas production, from May 2016 to May 2018, the Permian did not have a single gas-directed rig. Investments in the Permian have represented "$2 of every $10 spent on oilfield services and equipment worldwide." The wave of supply is coming at the right time for a state that gets half of its electricity from natural gas: "Texas sets new records for July electricity usage."

With the production boom, local gas prices at Waha hub have plummeted well below the national Henry Hub benchmark, down 30% over the past year alone. Constrained by a lack of pipelines (e.g., takeaway capacity has been put at 3.2 million b/d, with production expected to surpass 3.4 million b/d in August), producers are often forced to flare the associated gas. After a certain amount of time, however, gas can only be flared with an exemption from state regulators - another reason why environmental groups should support more pipelines. The Railroad Commission of Texas issues flare permits for 45 days at a time, for a maximum limit of 180 days. Bloomberg reported Permian natural gas pipelines at 98% full in June.

As crude production and thus gas output continues to mount, some Permian oil producers...

]]>Augment Your Realityhttp:///article/augment-your-reality
http:///article/augment-your-realityMon, 30 Apr 2018 00:00:00 -0400"Perception is reality!" A well-known phrase that has merit. One of the challenges of a compartmentalized society where groups in a tribal sense take certain positions and denies the reality of other group perceptions is finding the actual reality.

Human behavior being what it is, one sees where Heisenberg's Uncertainty Theory is at work - the very act of measuring changes the real quantum state.[i] However, when it comes to field operations, incorrect perceptions can be deadly.

When a field technician arrives on the job site, he or she has a set of tasks to perform. After the Job Safety Analysis (JSA) is completed the work begins. Hopefully, the tech has the right tools, access to "as is" drawings, manuals, parts, etc.

If one or more is missing or mistakes are made additional rework is the minimum required. However, in some actual cases equipment has been assembled incorrectly resulting in millions of dollars in losses. In other cases, fatalities have been the result.

As operators and service providers of energy critical infrastructure, cybersecurity is a priority of the oil and natural gas industry. The industry faces the threat of cyber-attacks from a variety of actors, including nation states, seeking to steal intellectual property and/or compromise industrial control systems (ICS). This conference is organized by API and IOGP to provide an opportunity to discuss challenges and share solutions and network with leading cybersecurity professionals. The conference features recognized cybersecurity experts in the oil and natural gas industry...

Oil risks sliding back under $60 a barrel as a surge in U.S. shipments to Asia threatens to undermine a deal between OPEC and its allies, according to ING Groep NV.

While the producer group complied with a pledge to curb output and ease a glut in 2017, U.S. flows that are gaining a bigger slice of the prized Asian market may prompt some nations to boost supplies, said Warren Patterson, a commodities strategist at the Dutch bank. The resulting fallout could drag down crude prices after a rally of more than 40 percent since June, he said.

“The longer the deal goes on, it’s going to start falling apart,” Patterson said in an interview in Singapore, referring to an output-cut agreement between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers including Russia. “They continue to give market share away to the U.S.”

U.S. Crude Heads to Asia

Asian refiners are increasing their U.S. oil purchases.

Brent crude, the benchmark for more than half the world’s oil, traded at $65.07 a barrel at 10:11 a.m. in London on Monday, compared with about $45 in June. ING forecasts Brent at $57 in the second half of 2018. Prices were at more than $115 in mid-2014, before a global glut sparked the biggest crash in a generation. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. marker, is currently near $62 a barrel.

Crude’s rebound since last year is encouraging American drillers to pump even as they make efforts to be disciplined on spending, Patterson said. “We need to see prices in the short-term trade below $60 to reduce that incentive for U.S. producers,” he said.

As American output continues to expand, more exports will sail to Asia, the traditional bastion of Middle East producers. In February, even Saudi Arabia’s state oil company considered participating in these flows via a U.S. unit...

]]>Digital Transformation in the Oilfield: Where do companies go wrong?http:///article/digital-transformation-in-the-oilfield-where-do-companies-go-wrong
http:///article/digital-transformation-in-the-oilfield-where-do-companies-go-wrongMon, 05 Mar 2018 00:00:00 -0500As companies report efficiencies from digitizing the oilfield, everyone is racing to get on board. According to a survey by Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review,eighty-five percent of executives believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) will enable a competitive advantage for their business, yet only 39 percent of those executives had an AI strategy in place. While the pace of change for the oil & gas business might not be as rapid yet, it is happening and the companies that are adopting new technologies like AI to create greater efficiencies are beginning to reap the benefits.

What makes advanced analytics in O&G uniquely challenging?

As an industry, oil and gas (O&G) faces a set of unique challenges when implementing AI. Companies going through digital transformation generally follow this value chain framework:

Companies started by simply measuring the data. Then devices became connected to the internet, and companies began to store historical measurements, manage the information, and monitor assets in real-time. With this new information, companies could perform analysis on the data (for example, checking for normal operations in equipment). As technology and machine learning progressed, analytics gained more advanced capabilities (for example, predicting when a specific piece of equipment would break). Today's advanced analytics provide the true value of a digital transformation.

]]>API urges EPA not to exempt small refiners from US biofuel mandatehttp:///article/api-urges-epa-not-to-exempt-small-refiners-from-us-biofuel-mandate
http:///article/api-urges-epa-not-to-exempt-small-refiners-from-us-biofuel-mandateTue, 13 Feb 2018 00:00:00 -0500The American Petroleum Institute has come out against a campaign by small refineries to avoid their obligations under the US biofuel mandate, according to a letter released Tuesday.

More than two dozen refineries with throughput of less than 75,000 b/d have reportedly petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to get out of the Renewable Fuel Standard's blending requirements based on a provision in the law allowing the agency to make exemptions based on "severe economic harm."

EPA has declined to answer questions about the petitions.

Frank Macchiarola, API's downstream group director, said in the letter to the EPA that the oil industry lobby also disagrees with arguments by the governors of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Texas, who said that refiners in their states are facing severe economic harm from the RFS. The governors pressed EPA for a nationwide waiver to the biofuel mandate.

]]>API-U Traininghttp:///article/api-u-training
http:///article/api-u-trainingWed, 07 Feb 2018 00:00:00 -0500Attend one of our instructor-led classes designed to help you get more out of API Standards or choose from more than 140 of our e-learning courses in mechanical maintenance, electrical maintenance, instrumentation and control, industrial math, and science and safety.

The premier program offered by API WorkSafe is the Service Station Contractor Safety Program that identifies contractor personnel who have passed a standardized examination covering the latest service station industry safety practices, based on API Recommended Practice 1646, Safe Work Practices for Contractors Working at Retail Petroleum/Convenience Facilities. The program provides awareness-level training on key safety issues found at petroleum retail job sites.